Wow Sum, that restaurant sounds incredible! However, being a bit of a fussy eater, It does kinda worry me that my dinner would be in the hands of the chef though - I would have to lie and say that I'm allergic to mushrooms as even having to look at them strikes fear in my heart lol.

I had a small gain - smidged up to 134 so only a 0.3lb gain but it was my own fault...my resolution for this week starting today is to maintain resolve when socializing!

Congrats on your 138, and 1.4 in a week is good going in my book, so well done!!

Off hiking tomorrow, 15km, so I should burn a few cals!

Down a bit 137.4. I was hoping to see 136.x this morning. I usually drop 1.2 pounds over night, always! Not last night, which was strange. I went to bed at 138 and I thought I would be 136.8 this morning, but nope, it gave me 137.4 instead. Weird.

Hoping to see 136.something for tomorrow's weigh in

And I am hoping to see 134 by Friday That would be a new low for me (during this journey).

Vix Not a bad "gain" after a fun filled night!

Wow, this thread was pretty active while I was away!

Sum - Belated congratulations on your anniversary! Your plan for celebration sounds great. What a unique and excellent dining experience for the two of you! I have the same night eating problems...we'll get it licked we just have to keep working on it. I also put off the house cleaning, ha! Today I planned not to have anything to do outside the house. So this morning I plan on doing the cleaning. I hate marathon cleaning but I must do this when I don't keep up with it for a long time. Then the afternoon/evening will be, unfortunately, unpaid overtime work. Good luck on seeing 134! A new low is always exciting when you've been working so hard.

Hoopty - Hope you're doing well. Although it can be even more stressful and frustrating to be off your diet/exercise plan during tough times, it's definitely understandable that you may not have the mental energy to deal with that struggle right now. So, if you get off plan, don't feel guilty about it. Just do what you need to do to keep a good state of mind!

vix - Glad you enjoyed the class! The food does sound good, and I'd say 0.3 lbs is in the margin of error so no need to worry about it. Hope you enjoy your hike. That's one of my favorite activities! It's just been hard to get out these days.

Toni - I take Irish step dancing classes, both soft and hard shoe. If you haven't seen it before, think Riverdance. It's a lot of fun and I'm really starting to get into it. I take 3 classes per week now, participate in performances (one tomorrow, so I will have to fit in some practice today!), and last month I went to my first competition (called a feis). It's a unique challenge to start Irish dancing for the first time as an adult, but I have a really supportive teacher and studio as well as classmates. My next feis is going to be in early September. For my first I only did soft shoe, but this next feis I'm doing both soft and hard shoe. Eeeps. I'm really not very good at hard shoe at all!

The past couple days I've been quite busy and only been watching my food/exercise tangentially, but I do think I've been about in my deficit through maintenance range, and I did a 2 hour dance class on Thursday and biked to/from beer yesterday as well as danced at a concert. So even though I've been busy...success days! Part of it is because I was busy...no time to mindlessly snack.

Today's food and exercise is going to be tough as I'm having an "at home" day. I need to do some cleaning (which I hate hate hate and love to put off!) and also overtime work for a deadline. Easy access to food...I guess it's good that the ice cream and chips are all gone!

I do need to practice for dance tomorrow. I want to start weightlifting again (it's so hard to fit in!) so my goal is to do that and then follow it up with a quick dance practice. I kept a log of my exercises/weights when I used to lift, so I'm just going to work through that again because it has been so long.

I haven't weighed for 3 days because I've been eating like a maniac and drinking tons of beer. Ahhh it's the state fair here and I've been going to concerts and beer gardens and having my fill of fair food. But it's only once a year and I looooove the fair. I'm afraid what the scale will say and my seamstress when I have to do the next fitting for my dress. I promised her it would fit better the next time she saw me so she wouldn't have to let it out. hahaha

Atmos - that Irish dancing sound like so much fun and really good exercise. I'm impressed!

Vix - 15 km hike is a long way, how did it go? I bet the scale dropped for you after that. I wish we had good places here to go hiking.

Wow well, the hike. I think I am just about recovered from it! The organizer is this nice guy who I think likes to keep people happy but this often involves him bending the truth a little, so he told us the drive there would be 3 hours and it was closer to 4.5, in a pretty cramped bus too. The hike itself was great - I met some cool new people and the views were great but then it got to about 6pm and we still had to get to the town where the bus was, then we were told it was an easy descent of about half an hour when it reality it was over an hour, and with irregular rocks on the ground and really steep - my knees were hurting so bad after that, and my toes too where they were hitting the front of my sneakers due to it being so steep down. Then, everyone wants a beer which is fine usually but by the time we got on the bus it was 9pm, and we didn't arrive back until 1am!! Luckily my mom had the girls but some of the group were panicking and had so much trouble to rearrange plans - the organizer originally said we'd be back at 11pm, so this is a big difference for many people with transport and childcare etc. Aaaannnd, to top it off, it was closer to 18km!! In future I think I'll just go for more relaxing walks than full-on hikes, especially not with this guy!!

But, think of the calorie burn right! And since we got back so late and tired I didn't have any dinner. I was mainly horizontal on Sunday at the beach and then slept for about 11 hours on Sunday night!

I only weigh once a week so we'll see what happens on Friday....

Toni, I think that's fine if you love the fair then this is your moment to relax a little, everyone has that special time of year or special event, like for some it's thanksgiving, for some it's vacations, no point in doing all this hard work if we can't enjoy our favorite things too, that's what life is after all!!

Good luck Sum, I'm thinking "134 thoughts" for you!!

Atmos, the dancing sounds so cool - my friend had Irish dancers at her wedding as a surprise for us guests (as both her and her husband have Irish ancestors) and it was great to watch them. It's good because it's both exercise and a hobby, and something to do as a group, I think this could work for a lot of people to get them up and exercising, maybe it should be more encouraged in schools for example.

Hey all - just wanted to pop in and say that I'm still hanging in there. I have a very major deadline this week at work that has been consuming my entire being. My goal is to turn in the report by the end of Saturday, then run around Sunday being one of the happiest people in the US. I'll be back Sunday - hope you all are doing well!

Hey guys,

Same here, just popping to say hi! Atmos, good luck, you can do it!
I haven't stepped on the scale in a few days...a week maybe? My eating is still horrible and I haven't been to the gym in what seems like forever.
My cousins from Canada are visiting so lots of eating out. We'll see...hopefully I can get back on track soon.

Waahhhh! Up another half a pound....nooo!! I have an idea why though - first, TOM is coming soon so there could be some water retention, plus I haven't had such a good stomach these last few days. My friend said the most likely culprit is some warm watermelon I had on the hike on saturday that had been in my bag hours before I ate it....Now I'm just craving plain plain food, like white crusty bread. I tried to carry on with my normal diet but last night my stomach was really protesting so I'm going to go for simple plain foods today, give my stomach want it seems to be wanting and then hopefully I'll get over it. I've had the same before, and bread always seems to solve it, although it pains me to buy white bread when I now know how bad it is for me.

Good luck with the report atmos, I'm thinking of you!

Have fun with your cousins Hoopty!!

hoopty - Hope you're doing well. That's great that your Canadian cousins are able to visit! My roommate's mother is from Germany and he was able to go visit his extended family last year. It was a really great trip for him. Even if he needed a translator to talk to his grandmother.

vix - Hope you're feeling better. Stomach bugs are always a huge bummer.

I'm very excited to say that I turned in the draft report yesterday! I'm also down to a new low for 2014 at 132.6 lbs. It was a small victory yesterday not to over eat during my report finishing (although being out of chips may have contributed to it). I'm very motivated to keep up with it. I need to do some cleaning and get groceries today, but other than that I'm going to treat myself to a relaxing time!

Where are you all??? Hopefully out enjoying the end of summer!

Just popping in to say this is the most consistent I've been with my calorie deficit in a while. However, my dance school is on hiatus this week due to the big summer workshop down in Denver. I didn't join because it conflicts with my work schedule, but I also haven't been exercising on my own. Oops! I'm aiming to do some dance practice tonight after work.

Hey atmos!!! Well done on the report! Sounds like you deserved a rest but I bet you'll be glad to get back to dancing too, have fun tonight! As for the end of summer, here it never stops, August is going to be a scorcher I think!

I'm much better now, I am still a bit iffy when I think of eating certain foods and my stomach is making strange noises right now but I am choosing to ignore it, but otherwise I'm fine. And, the best bit is, I'm down a pound!! This is officially my lowest weight possibly as an adult I think!!

Bring on the weekend woooo!!

139.6 today so I get to come play with you guys for the rest of the summer

Hi everyone :-) Figured it was time to join this thread, 137.5 today

Welcome and congrats, lulubellebc and underanalysis!

Glad to hear everyone is enjoying a busy summer. I know it's tough when there is a lot of traveling and visiting going on. I've been quietly lurking around the boards and continuing to track my weight. Having the flu last week followed by a couple of high calorie days this week has apparently shaken things up enough to get my body to drop another 2 pounds.

I'm not much into specific weight goals, but I would love to drop another pound this month to bring me to exactly 20 pounds lost in 12 months. We shall see.

vix - Congrats on the new low! Glad you're feeling better.

underanalysis and lulubellebc - Welcome!

LovesToTravel - That's a bummer about having the flu, I hope you are feeling better. Good luck on that last pound, round numbers are very satisfying for some reason.

I have my good days and my less than good days eating/exercise-wise, but I'm keeping on. Not gaining at least! I'm still hoping to get down to 130 by the end of August, but if I'm not I'll be accepting of that. My major goal for the year is not to gain anymore, including over the holidays.

A four day work week for me, as I'm taking off Friday to go camping! I'm very much looking forward to it. One of my favorite activities.